HomepageNewsUrsinus Student Journalists Grab Headlines in Local News

Ursinus Student Journalists Grab Headlines in Local News

A group of budding Ursinus reporters are making an impact on the local news scene, having published a series on inequity in public schools in the Pottstown Mercury. The project was led by Doron Taussig, a visiting assistant professor in journalism, through the Mellon Periclean Faculty Leadership Program in the Humanities.

During a fall semester course, the students researched and produced multimedia journalism pieces about practical effects of public-school funding disparities in Pennsylvania. They interviewed administrators, teachers, parents and students in different school districts about their experiences for four published articles and facilitated a virtual discussion with students from the Pottstown, Phoenixville, Spring-Ford, and Perkiomen Valley high schools.

“We had really difficult conditions for reporting this fall, with students and school administrators understandably preoccupied with navigating the pandemic, and I was so impressed with and proud of how these students pursued stories aggressively and produced professional-caliber journalism,” Taussig said.

The students who published the articles are: Isaiah Battle ’23, Ben Goetz ’22, Julia Paiano ’23, and Alex Wagoner ’21. 

Liam Geib ’22, Isaiah Glover ’24, Carli Heimann ’21, Dan Icaza ’22, and Kamilyah Nazih ’22 produced the video piece.

Project Pericles is a nonprofit organization that encourages and facilitates commitments by colleges and universities to include social responsibility and participatory citizenship as essential elements of their educational programs. Ursinus College is a founding member.

“Journalism allows a platform for some people, who otherwise may not have a platform, to speak their truth and tell their story,” Julia Paiano ’23 said. “Elevating voices who are often swept away is something that a lot more media has begun to focus on, and it is important that this work continues.”

Read all of the student stories by clicking the links to the right of this page.

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